‘Oh, yeah, I could do that!’
“Have you considered my servant Job? There is no one on earth like him; he is blameless and upright, a man who fears God and shuns evil. And he still maintains his integrity, though you incited me against him to ruin him without any reason.” (Job 2:3)
Recent graduate and this week's guest blogger Naomi had a realisation today... what are your thoughts on her thoughts?
As I stumbled into the office at 7am, rubbing the sleep from my eyes, Leo said to me, “Morning Luke. There’s a pot of tea ready. I’m 79 today! How are you? Tired?” I wished Leo happy birthday and commented on how joyful he was.
In fact, Leo and his wife Pam are two of the most joyful people you could hope to meet. I figured it would be worth asking Leo what the key to his joy was. He was happy to take time out of cleaning the church offices where I work to chat to me about this.
It's the summer, things are winding down and young people are off on summer adventures. September feels a long way off but by the time you kick back into gear after the holidays, you'll have less than a month left.
Only 1 month to go and they'll all be gone. One month and those young people you've invested in for 7 years will be off starting their new lives. One month and they'll be making new friends, making life choices on their own two feet and taking steps towards an unprecedented independence and the life they choose for themselves.
“I’m sorry, but you have a problem.” In my life this sentence is usually followed by “this ticket was only valid yesterday” or “this PC has crashed again, buy a mac” or even “there is a duck dying noisily in your garden”. These are all things that have been said to me. It is often annoying when someone tells you that you have a problem, but it also usually reflective of a tough truth that needs addressing.
I am here to tell you that you have a problem. Something is broken and you are needed to help fix it. The problem is that most Christians who go to university, give up on church when they get there. Most of them lose their faith as a result of this. This means about 12,000 young people leave the church each year and this problem is too big to write off as someone else’s problem.
Is youth group enough?
